There is little point in rehashing the origins and 5-year
run of the wildly popular medical drama
Ben
Casey, as
Stephen Bowie has already done that in his blog post "'Man.
Woman. Birth. Death. Infinity.' The Dark Medical Drama
Ben Casey" on
avclub.com. Bowie has provided additional
backstage insight into the program on his own
The Classic TV History Blog,
including interviews with star
Harry Landers and the real-life nurses who were
technical advisors on the program in the article "The Nurses of Ben
Casey." The series was created by
James E. Moser, a
Jack Webb acolyte, who
had written for the original
Dragnet
TV series and then applied that "just the facts" style to his first
medical drama
Medic in 1954. But
Ben Casey took a different approach
after Moser met an upstart young neurosurgeon named
Allan "Max"
Warner while doing research at L.A. General Hospital. The character of Ben Casey
is based in part on Warner, who wound up switching fields to psychiatry because
he felt his association with the program would prevent him from ever passing
his boards for neurosurgery. In picking
Vince Edwards to play the role of
Casey, Moser deliberately chose an actor who up to that point had pieced
together a career playing heavies but projected the sort of macho image Moser
desired. Moser ran through a series of auditions with actors that were considered
too effeminate. Moser's choice obviously had the desired effect, because
according to a
May 12, 1962 article in
The Saturday Evening Post, Edwards'
rugged, beefy looks were a big hit with female viewers. Author
Bill Davidson
observes,
Unlike his rival Dick Chamberlain
(who plays Dr. Kildare and appeals mostly to teen-age girls), Edwards hits the
entire spectrum of femininity...One fortyish housewife joyously informed
Edwards that she had been trying to become pregnant without success for fifteen
years, but that she had conceived after watching the Ben Casey show for three weeks.
Moser himself is quoted in the article saying, "He's
thoroughly masculine, which is quite a change from the dozens of pretty-boy
actors who dominate television."
While Bowie points out the ways in which
Ben Casey tackled human-interest issues
such as drug addiction in "I Remember a Lemon Tree" (October 23, 1961)
or child abuse in "The Sweet Kiss of Madness" (December 4, 1961),
along the lines of contemporary first-rate dramas such as
The Defenders and
Route 66,
the series is equally dedicated to holding up the character of Ben Casey as a
crusader who is nearly always right and frequently has to break a few rules to
ensure that lives are saved, much in the spirit of
Perry Mason. Though
Raymond Burr was not the hunk Vince Edwards was,
both actors spent their early careers mostly playing the heavy before being cast
against type as a heroic insurgent in their respective professions. In the
first two episodes of
Ben Casey--"To
the Pure (October 2, 1961) and "But Only Linda Smiled" (October 9,
1961), Casey performs unauthorized procedures that land him in hot water, though
he claims the patients would not have survived otherwise, not unlike the ways
that Perry Mason manipulates evidence or witnesses in defense of his clients. Casey
also steps out of his lane like Mason in taking on the role of detective in
"Dark Night for Billy Harris' (December 18, 1961) when he begins to see
cracks in the story of how a liquor store would-be robber was shot. When he
begins to suspect that policeman George Dempsey has lied about how and why he
shot robber Billy Harris, Casey's mentor Dr. Zorba repeatedly reminds him that
the case is one for the police to resolve themselves. But, of course, Casey
persists in running the case to ground himself and is proven right, just like
Perry Mason. Another parallel to
Perry Mason
is rigid hospital administrator Dr. Harold Jensen portrayed as Casey's nemesis,
threatening him with suspension for his out-of-bounds behavior much like
Hamilton Burger's threats to Mason to have charges brought against him for his
extra-judicial tactics.
After setting up Casey as a surly maverick in the first two
episodes, Moser and company obviously felt the need to rein him in and make him
more likable in subsequent episodes, thus he is called on to extend the life of
father-like former teacher Dr. Michael Waldman (after first tussling with
Jensen over a proposed surgery) in "The Insolent Heart" (October 16,
1961) and shows more sympathy with many of his patients. They also introduce a
series of anti-Caseys--other weaker doctors to contrast with the Casey ideal--in
episodes such as "I Remember a Lemon Tree," "A Few Brief Lines
for Dave" (November 13, 1961), and "The Sweet Kiss of Madness." In
"I Remember a Lemon Tree"
George C. Scott plays another brilliant,
promising neurosurgeon who is even more unpleasant than Casey because we learn
he is a drug addict just trying to prop himself up for his remaining days while
suffering from a terminal illness. In "A Few Brief Lines for Dave"
Kevin McCarthy plays potential hospital lifer Dr. Dave Taylor who briefly tries
running a private practice on the outside but is too intimidated by the weight
of responsibility and thus returns to work on staff at General Hospital using
the excuse that he is getting more training and performing research. However,
when a young boy from a nearby rural community dies because his town's doctor
retired and was never replaced, Casey argues with Taylor that if he had the
guts to enter private practice in such a community, he could save the lives of
young boys like the one who just died. And in "The Sweet Kiss of
Madness"
Arthur Hill plays another former private practice doctor, Alan
Reynolds, using the excuse of needing more training when actually he is back at
General Hospital to make the necessary connections to establish a highly
profitable big-city practice to satisfy the ambitions of his wife. Never mind
that we don't know how long Casey has been at General Hospital or what his
long-term plans are, these other doctors are doing it wrong and Casey is the
first to tell them so.
In shaping the early character of Ben Casey, Moser and his
writers made a couple of furtive attempts to show him as the lady's man female
viewers imagined him to be, but seem to have settled on showing him as a
fighter, not a lover thereafter. As Bowie has noted in his articles on the
program, initially
Bettye Ackerman's character Dr. Maggie Graham was supposed
to be Casey's primary love interest. The two are shown dining and dancing
together in the first episode, "To the Pure," and even share a kiss
and a few clenches as Graham worries about Casey having possibly contracted
rabies from an infected patient who dies from the disease. But thereafter we
see no more romantic moments between the two, though we have a brief allusion
to such in the second episode "But Linda Only Smiled" when infatuated
patient Linda Miller quizzes Graham about how well she knows Casey. We see
Casey work his charms on another female doctor, pediatrician Dr. Jean Howard,
after the two have clashed over proper treatment for one of her child patients
(a la
The Taming of the Shrew) in
"Pavanne for a Gentle Lady" (November 20, 1961), with the same
pattern of dinner, dancing, and some clenching and kissing back at her
apartment. But by the end of the episode Howard plays hard to get with Casey,
who wants to see her again, while she says she already has a date with Zorba
and off-handedly observes that he will certainly see her now and then around
the hospital. As with the scores of virile heroes of TV westerns, Moser no
doubt realized that to keep female viewers intrigued, his star needed to be
available. Meanwhile, we are treated to another anti-Casey, in this case of
intern Dr. Lawrence Powers, who is more interested in dating a pretty nurse
than in doing his job in "A Certain Time, A Certain Darkness"
(December 11, 1961). Once Casey has enough evidence against him, he vows to run
him out of his internship.
Besides fighting against hospital administration, Casey
spends a fair amount of time fighting the families of patients, who are opposed
to his suggested treatments. In the aforementioned "But Linda Only
Smiled" he clashes with a mother who is opposed to blood transfusions on
quasi-religious grounds. In "My Good Friend Krikor" (November 27,
1961), he fights with the son-in-law of a mental patient who wants his
father-in-law committed to an asylum so that he can take control of the family
business, while Casey recommends a risky surgery that may alleviate his
occasionally delusional thinking. In "A Certain Time, A Certain
Darkness" he has to chastise a parental couple who are embarrassed about
their daughter's epilepsy, which only adds to the daughter's anxiety and
difficulty in dealing with her illness. And in the previously discussed
"Pavanne for a Gentle Lady," Casey disagrees not only with Dr. Howard
but also the child patient's parents, who in this case try to pressure him into
pursuing treatments before the child's illness has been fully diagnosed. This
is one episode in which Casey's adversary, Dr. Howard, is proven right about
her initial diagnosis, but Casey isn't necessarily proven wrong in waiting
until the diagnosis is more certain before proceeding with the operation. If
this were a sit-com, one might name it
Casey
Knows Best.
David Raksin, sometimes called The Grandfather of Film Music,
wrote the theme music and some individual episode scores for
Ben Casey. Raksin was born in
Philadelphia, the son of a musical conductor and performer in dance bands and
the Philadelphia Orchestra. Young Raksin formed his first band at age 12 and
later led it performing on CBS radio station WCAU. He taught himself
orchestration while still in high school and worked his way through college at
the University of Pennsylvania by playing in society bands and with radio
orchestras. After college he moved to New York and while playing and arranging
for radio and recording orchestras, his arrangement of
George Gershwin's "I Got
Rhythm" caught the attention of pianist
Oscar Levant, who notified
Gershwin of the young musician. Gershwin was impressed and recommended him to theatrical
arrangement company Harms/Chappell for whom he worked until 1935 when he was
invited to Hollywood to work with
Charlie Chaplin on the music for
Modern Times. Raksin's task was to adapt
Chaplin's whistled and hummed tunes into a full orchestral score for the film.
He then returned to Philadelphia to work as assistant to conductor
Leopold
Stokowski before returning to Hollywood for good. Much of his earlier work
composing for feature films went uncredited through the late 1930s and early
1940s, but everything changed with his score and title theme for the 1944 film
Laura, which became a huge hit and one
of the most-covered songs of all time. From then on, Raksin was an in-demand
composer for films, scoring multiple movies every year. Among the highlights
were
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,
Forever Amber (for which he received
his first Oscar nomination), and
Daisy
Kenyon--all in 1947--
Force of Evil (1948),
The Reformer and the Redhead (1950),
Pat and Mike (1952),
Carrie (1952), and
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), whose theme was also a hit.
Raksin received his second Oscar nomination for the theme to
Separate Tables in 1958 and began
working in television, initially only occasionally, on a 1955 episode of
Front Row Center, followed by single
episodes for
Panic! (1957) and
Wagon Train (1958). His theme for
Ben Casey came during a flurry of
television work in the early 1960s that also included composing for multiple
episodes and the theme for
Father of the
Bride. While he did not work extensively in television, he did compose the
score for 5 episodes of
Ben Casey's
prime competitor
Dr. Kildare in
1964-65. Otherwise he kept busy continuing to work on feature films such as
Too Late Blues,
The Patsy, and
Invitation to
a Gunfighter. But by the late 1960s his work on traditional feature films,
TV series, and TV movies waned considerably as he pursued other endeavors. From
1956-2003 he taught film composition at USC, and from 1970-92 he lectured at
UCLA and was a visiting professor at U.C. Santa Barbara. He also composed three
musicals, incidental music for other theatrical productions and ballets,
material for radio broadcast, as well as conducting his own music in concerts
at the Hollywood Bowl and Lincoln Center. He also served as President of the
Composers & Lyricist Guild of America from 1962-70 and was President of the
Film Music Society
in the 1990s. He
died of heart failure at age 92 on August 9, 2004.
The series' first season has been released on DVD-R by CBS
Home Entertainment.
The Actors
Vince Edwards
in 1963 and played himself on a 1966 episode of
The Lucy Show, but after
Ben Casey went off the air in 1966, he
found himself typecast as far as television was concerned, so he turned to more
feature films such as
Hammerhead and
The Devil's Brigade in 1968 and
Desperado in 1969. Beginning in the 1970s
he began appearing in a series of TV movies, and one of these,
The Cliff, launched his next TV series,
Matt Lincoln, in which he played another
doctor, this time a psychiatrist. The series lasted only 16 episodes from
1970-71, and he was soon back to doing TV movies and an occasional feature
film. By 1975 he began getting occasional guest spots on TV series again, and
his experience directing 7 episodes on
Ben
Casey came in handy, as he was also called on to direct occasional episodes
on series such as
Police Story,
David Cassidy -- Man Undercover,
Battlestar Galactica, and
Fantasy Island. In the mid-1980s he
added voicework for animated series to his resume, including multiple episodes
of the cartoon version of
Punky Brewster
and the role of Jake Rockwell on
Centurions.
In 1988 he reprised his most famous role in the TV movie
The Return of Ben Casey and played himself in a 1993 episode of the
TV series
Nurses. However, there was
also a dark side to Edwards including a gambling addiction that his fourth wife
Janet Edwards estimated had cost him somewhere between $20 and $30 million over
his career. Co-star Harry Landers revealed in a 2010 interview that Edwards and
members of his entourage, particularly former boxer
Benny Goldberg, ran several
scams to supply him with gambling money, such as collecting for office
Christmas parties and keeping half the money, and getting additional business
for extras and then pocketing the additional pay they were due. Landers also
claimed that despite Edwards hulking build, he was "phoney baloney,"
i.e., puffed up on steroids but with the wrists of a 15-year-old girl. Edwards
was eventually able to overcome his gambling addiction late in life and
collaborated with Janet to tell his story in the memoir
Easy, the Hard Way: The Vince Edwards Story. He died from
pancreatic cancer at the age of 67 on March 11, 1996.
Sam Jaffe
Shalom Jaffe was born in the Lower East Side of New York
City on March 10, 1891. His mother
Heida Ada was a Yiddish vaudeville actor and
singer, first in Odesa, Ukraine, and then in the U.S. after she and her
husband, jeweller
Barnett Jaffe, emigrated to the States. Young Sam's first
appearances in the theater was as a prompter for his mother's performances.
Barnett abandoned the family, which then included Sam and three older siblings,
so the young Sam was raised and adopted by an aunt and uncle, as his mother was
forced to travel for acting work to support the family. Sam's uncle worked by
renting out event halls to families on the Lower East Side. Sam attended
Townsend Harris High School, was a teenage friend of director
John Huston who
lived in the same building, and then matriculated to City College of New York
to study engineering, graduating in 1912. He attended graduate school at
Columbia University and supported himself by teaching and acting as Dean of
Mathematics at the college prep school Bronx Cultural Institute. But in 1915 he
was invited to join the theatrical troupe the Washington Square Players and
thus began his acting career in earnest. Three years later he was appearing in
Broadway productions of
Youth and
Mrs. Warren's Profession. Among his more
noteworthy theatrical performances were the comic character Yudelson in 1925-26
and 1927 productions of
The Jazz Singer,
the dying clerk Otto Kringelein in a 1930 production of
Grand Hotel, the enraged accountant Mr. Zero in a 1956 revival of
The Adding Machine, and the Hindu guru
Tarun Maharaj in the 1979 production of
A
Meeting by the River when Jaffe was 88 years old. In 1926 he married
operatic soprano and musical comedy star
Lillian Taiz, who died from cancer in
1941. He made his feature film debut in 1934 playing the mad Grand Duke Peter, opposite
Marlene Dietrich. Though his film career was not prolific, he was often sought
out for key supporting roles, such as the High Lama holy man character in
Frank
Capra's 1937 adventure epic
Lost Horizon.
However, two years later he played the title role as the Hindu water carrier in
Gunga Din. Though he had appeared in
only four feature films by 1943, he was famous enough to be included playing
himself in the star-studded
Stage Door
Canteen. That same year he collaborated with
George Freedley to create the
Equity Library Theater, of which he was also chairman for six years, which
provided a free showcase for aspiring actors and directors to practice their
craft. In 1947 he played a scientist harassed by anti-Semites in
Gentleman's Agreement and was nominated
for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing criminal mastermind
Dr. Erwin Riedenschneider in Huston's 1950 crime drama
The Asphalt Jungle. But his film career would be hampered for much
of the 1950s when he was blacklisted as a Communist sympathizer, though he was
given special approval by studio boss
Daryl Zanuck to play the
Einstein-like
scientist Prof. Jacob Barnhardt in Robert Wise's 1951 sci-fi classic
The Day the Earth Stood Still. In 1956
he remarried to actress Bettye Ackerman, 33 years younger than he and a future
co-star on
Ben Casey. His Hollywood
film career didn't really resume until he appeared in Huston's
The Barbarian and the Geisha, followed
by the role of Simonides in the 1959 Biblical epic
Ben-Hur. Though he made his television debut in a 1949 episode of
The Big Story, his TV career didn't
really get going until a decade later, as he landed a few guest spots on drama
anthology series. By 1960 he was getting regular guest work on series such as
The Westerner,
Alfred Hitchcock Presents,
The Untouchables,
Naked City, and
Cain's Hundred before being cast as Dr.
David Zorba on
Ben Casey.
In his 2010 interview documented on classictvhistory.wordpress.com,
co-star Harry Landers said that Jaffe left the series before its final season
because he was fed up with the behavior of Vince Edwards and his sidekick Benny
Goldberg. Jaffe made a few guest appearances during the
Casey years on
The Defenders,
The Donna Reed Show,
Daniel Boone, and
Bonanza, but found more work in feature films than television in
the latter 1960s. In the early 1970s he found more work on TV movies before
returning to regular TV series and an occasional feature film for the rest of
the decade. Among his TV guests spots were episodes of
Love, American Style,
Owen
Marshall, Counselor at Law,
The Snoop
Sisters,
The Streets of San Francisco,
Columbo,
The Bionic Woman, and
Kojak.
His last TV appearance came in a 1983 episode of
The Love Boat, and in 1984 he appeared in the feature films
Nothing Lasts Forever and
On the Line. Jaffe was also considered a
talented pianist and for many years was a member of the Actors Equity Council.
He died from cancer at the age of 93 on March 24, 1984.
Bettye Ackerman
beginning in 1972. The remainder of
the 1970s included many guest spots on a variety of series--sometimes with
Jaffe, sometimes without--including
Gunsmoke,
Ironside,
The Rookies,
Police Story,
and
Barnaby Jones, to name but a few.
After Jaffe died in 1984, she continued acting on TV series for a couple of
years, her last credit coming in a 1986 episode of
St. Elsewhere. In 1998 she moved back to South Carolina to be near
her extended family, settling in Columbia. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's a
few years later, and in late October 2006 suffered a stroke from which she died
four days later on November 1 at the age of 82.
Harry Landers
Born
Harry Sorokin on September 3, 1921 in Brooklyn,
Landers, one of seven children, said that he and all but one of his brothers
took their mother's maiden name Landers out of outrage after their father
abandoned the family. After graduating from Thomas Jefferson High School,
Landers joined the Merchant Marine during World War II and became something of
a hero when he helped rescue several of his crew mates after their ship was hit
with a torpedo. After the War he worked as a laborer on the Warner Brothers lot
when the studio newspaper ran an article about his war-time heroics, which
caught the attention of
Bette Davis. She sent her limousine to pick up Landers
and bring him to her dressing room where she asked what she could do for him.
He told her he would like to be an extra in the movies because he had noticed
while sweating at his laborer job that they were better dressed and better paid
than he was. So Davis called the head of the Screen Actors Guild and paid for
Landers' initiation fee, then sent him to the office to register. He got his
first two uncredited roles in 1947 features
Boomerang!
and
Kiss of Death, followed by his
first credited part in
'C'-Man in
1949. After being invited by his friend Mark Daly to sit in on an acting class,
Landers joined the Actors Lab where he met and was taught by luminaries such as
Hume Cronyn and
Norman Lloyd. But he said he was thrown out of a class by
Stella Adler because she said he was a gangster, by which Landers said meant he
was rebellious. In fact, Landers, a lifelong alcoholic, had an explosive temper
that frequently got him into trouble. After appearing in
Guilty Bystander and
Undercover
Girl in 1950, he moved back to New York, driving cross country with actor
Gene Barry and another man. He began appearing on live TV programs there such
as
The Philco Television Playhouse,
Somerset Maugham TV Theatre, and
Studio One and occasional movies such as
Mister Universe. He appeared 11 times
on
Captain Video and His Video Rangers
playing different roles and sometimes co-starring with
Ernest Borgnine. When he
was cast in a 1952 episode of
Tales of
Tomorrow, he had to be bailed out of jail just in time for the broadcast
after being locked up for damaging the apartment building of a woman whom he
wanted to go out with but who had turned him down. By 1953 he was back in
Hollywood, appearing in features such as
Phantom
From Space,
The Wild One,
Drive a Crooked Road, and
Rear Window. He also appeared in small
parts on TV series such as
The Lineup,
Treasury Men in Action, and
The Whistler. In 1956 he played three
different parts in
Cecil B. DeMille's last picture,
The Ten Commandments, but more famously actually talked back to
DeMille and still didn't get fired. In fact, he wound up developing a kind of
friendship with DeMille, who could never remember his name, that kept him from
being dismissed from the production when he had accrued what the producers felt
was too much income from working so much overtime. His work making guest
appearances on television and supporting roles in feature films continued to
grow in the late 1950s, including series such as
Perry Mason,
M Squad,
The Silent Service, and
Have Gun -- Will Travel. He married
three-time Miss Louisiana Jeanne Vaughn in 1957, and the couple had two
children before divorcing in 1968. After appearing in a single episode of
Medic, written by
Ben Casey creator James Moser, Landers got an audition for the
Ben Casey pilot and was called back for
a second look, this time with Vince Edwards, and Moser interrupted the scene
they were doing and said they were it.
But his post-
Ben Casey
career was not as successful. He logged a few TV guest spots in 1966-68 on
Combat!,
The Rat Patrol,
Iron Horse,
and
Mannix but then switched to
feature films with credits in
In Enemy
Country,
Massacre Harbor, and
supporting
Elvis Presley in
Charro! While
filming this last movie, Landers said he felt a strain in his lung after a gym
workout, and when he had it checked out, the doctors discovered he had a growth
there and wound up removing his upper right lung. After surgery he appeared in
a final-season episode of
Star Trek
only because the director
Fred Freiberger was an old friend from the Actors
Lab. But after that, Landers refused to work as an actor for almost a decade,
instead spending his time collecting and selling antique art. He was finally
recruited to return to TV by old friend
Jack Klugman on
Quincy, M.E., appearing in two episodes as well as a TV movie
Mad Bull also in 1977. During this
period he was also recruited to be the on-screen spokesperson for Taster's
Choice coffee because one of the sponsor's wives had seen him on
Ben Casey. However, he disappeared from
acting again for another decade until reprising the role of Dr. Ted Hoffman on
the 1988 TV movie
The Return of Ben Casey.
He appeared in three forgettable feature films in 1990 before abandoning acting
for good. He retired to the San Fernando Valley and wound up living with his
son until his death at age 96 on September 10, 2017.
Jeanne Bates
Born in Berkeley, California on May 21, 1918, Bates broke
into show business while attending San Mateo Junior College, first as a model
for billboards and magazines and then on the San Francisco-based radio thriller
Whodunit? for which she supplied the
opening scream and played a variety of characters. In 1943, the show was moved
to Hollywood and Bates went with it, marrying the show's chief writer
Lew X.
Lanforth. Besides her extensive filmography and radio credits, little has been
published about her personal life, other than her being a practicing Episcopalian
and a registered Republican. Also in 1943 she signed a contract with Columbia
Pictures and appeared in three feature films and a serial, beginning with the
Boston Blackie crime drama
The Chance of
a Lifetime, as
Bela Lugosi's first victim in
The Return of the Vampire , and as heroine Diana Palmer in
The Phantom serial. The incredibly
prolific Bates would appear in 8 more features in 1944, including
The Racket Man,
Shadows in the Night,
The
Soul of a Monster, and
Sergeant Mike,
but her feature film work declined over the remainder of the decade because she
returned to radio to appear on literally dozens of different programs. Besides
appearing on a number of anthology series, she had regular roles as Candice
Drake on
Today's Children, Caroline
Wilson on
The Woman in My House, and
Mary Kay Jones on
I Love Adventure. She
also played Paula Bullard Winthorp on
The
Great Gilversleeve and Barbara on the soap opera
One Man's Family. In 1950 she also began appearing on television,
while still remaining very active on radio. Besides the usual drama
anthologies, she appeared on
Racket Squad,
Gang Busters, and
The Halls of Ivy in the early 1950s and
dozens more programs in the latter 1950s, including multiple episodes of
Gunsmoke,
Perry Mason,
State Trooper,
and
The Restless Gun,
in addition to a single appearance on the
Ben Casey forerunner
Medic. She continued appearing on dozens
of shows in the early 1960s, including
Rawhide,
The Donna Reed Show,
Laramie,
Death Valley Days,
Checkmate,
Lock Up,
One Step Beyond, and the memorable 1961
Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life" in which Bill
Mumy plays a tyrannical young boy with God-like powers. That same year she was
cast as head nurse Miss Wills on
Ben
Casey.
During her
Ben Casey
years, Bates did little else on film, appearing only in one 1962 episode of
Wagon Train and playing a nurse (of
course) in the 1964
Victor Buono thriller
The
Strangler. In a 2013 interview with the technical advisor, real-life nurses
on
Ben Casey,
classictvhistory.wordpress.com
quotes nurse
Alice Rodriguez saying that during the show's summer breaks, Bates
accompanied Rodriguez to L.A. General Hospital to shadow nurses on staff there,
in full uniform, over a two-week period to see first-hand what they did.
However, Rodriguez also notes that Bates felt she was underutilized on
Ben Casey, and during the fifth and
final season, she appeared in only 5 episodes, none of them before episode 15. After
Ben Casey was canceled, it took a few
years before Bates resumed her busy schedule of TV guest appearances and
occasional feature film roles, though the paced definitely slackened after
Casey. Though no one has documented the
exact dates of all her theatrical appearances, she was known to be active in
the Los Angeles Theatre West company as well as occasional traveling troupes.
In 1967-68 she played Jean Perkins on the soap opera
Days of Our Lives and returned to the show in 1972 to play Anne
Peters until 1975. In between she guest starred on everything from
Hawaii Five-O to
Family Affair,
Mayberry R.F.D.,
My Three Sons,
The Streets of San Francisco,
Marcus
Welby, M.D.,
Mod Squad, and
Room 222. She continued working on many
of the better-known TV series through the rest of the 1970s but returned to
feature films in the Disney comedy
Gus,
the field-goal kicking donkey, starring
Don Knotts and
Tim Conway, in 1976. The
next year her career took a left turn when she appeared in
David Lynch's
bizarre
Eraserhead, and Lynch would
use her again over 20 years later in
Mulholland
Drive in 2001 (as well as the TV movie of the same title that preceded it
in 1999). In the meantime, her husband died in 1981, the same year she returned
to the soaps as Edith Mills on
The Young
and the Restless. In 1982 she finally made it to Broadway in a revival
production of
Seven Brides for Seven
Daughters. In 1983 she joined the cast of
General Hospital as Mrs. Dodd, all the while continuing to pop up
on
Barnaby Jones,
Quincy, M.E.,
Three's Company,
Benson,
and
Dallas. In the late 1980s, her
work in television largely dried up, but she still found occasional generic
roles in TV movies and feature films like
Touch
and Go and
Die Hard 2. She
continued working through the 1990s, though more sparsely, in features such as
Mom,
Grand
Canyon, and
Dream Lover as well
as TV series such as
The Commish,
Wings, and
Sister, Sister. Her last credit was providing the voice of a game
show contestant on
That '70s Show in
2002. She died from breast cancer at the age of 89 on November 28, 2007.
Nick Dennis
Like many supporting actors of his generation, little has
been published about Nick Dennis' life beyond his filmography. He was born in
Thessaly, Greece on April 26, 1904 and spoke fluent Greek, but how or when he
came to America is not known. He began appearing in Broadway productions as
early as 1935, at first in general roles in
A
Slight Case of Murder, followed by
On
Your Toes (1936-37), and
On Borrowed
Time (1938). He got his first named role playing Modesto in a 1939-40
production of
The World We Make, but
was back to ensemble/chorus roles in
What
Big Ears! (1942),
The Innocent Voyage
(1943), and
Cyrano de Bergerac
(1946-47). In between he played named characters in
Storm Operation (1944) and
The
Rugged Path (1945-46). His big breakout role came playing Pablo Gonzales in
the original production of
A Streetcar
Named Desire from 1947-49, a role he reprised in the film version of 1951.
This role appears to have launched his movie career because he would not return
to Broadway after it, and he made his first feature film appearance in an
uncredited part in
A Double Life. His
first TV appearance came two years later on an episode of
Hands of Mystery. But his film career really began in earnest in
1951 in which he appeared not only in the above-mentioned
A Streetcar Named Desire but also in
Humphrey Bogart's
Scirocco, the
Burt Lancaster French
Foreign Legion action-adventure drama
Ten
Tall Men, and an episode of the TV anthology
Pulitzer Prize Playhouse. From then on, Dennis would remain active
with a string of feature films and TV appearances, often playing ethnic types,
for the rest of his life, though his resume is nowhere near as extensive as
Jeanne Bates, for example. Notable feature film credits include the 1953 3D
noir
Man in the Dark,
East
of Eden,
Kiss Me Deadly,
Slaughter on 10th Avenue,
Spartacus,
Birdman of Alcatraz, and
4
for Texas. TV series on which he made multiple appearances include
The Danny Thomas Show,
Fireside Theatre,
Passport to Danger,
Four Star
Playhouse,
The Rebel, and
Bachelor Father. He made his first of 48
appearances as orderly Nick Kanavaras in the third episode of
Ben Casey, "The Insolent
Heart." His last appearance was his only one in Season 5. According to
technical advisor
Alice Rodriguez cited above in the Jeanne Bates biography,
Dennis had a tendency to improvise his lines on the show and was constantly
having to be reined back in. His post-
Ben
Casey career was considerably less active but included single appearances
on
I Spy,
Ironside, and
Columbo as
well as a few feature films. His final credits came on
Kojak, first as Uncle Constantine 6 times in the first three
seasons, and then as a character named Charlie 3 times in the fifth season.
Dennis died at the age of 76 on November 14, 1980.
John Zaremba
Born in Chicago on October 22, 1908, John Zaremba began his
career as a newspaper reporter for the
Grand
Rapids Press and
Chicago Tribune
before deciding to switch careers to acting after writing about the theatre in
entertainment columns. He moved to Los Angeles in 1949 and was
"discovered" by director
Thomas Carr during a casting call. Though
imdb.com lists his first feature film appearance in the 1944 western
Cyclone Prairie Rangers (a full 5 years
before he moved to California),
findagrave.com says he first appeared in Carr's
adventure epic
Pirates of the High Seas
in 1950 (which is not included in his filmography on imdb.com). In any event,
it took a few years for Zaremba's new career to gain traction, but after
getting his first credited part in the 1953 science fiction thriller
The Magnetic Monster, Zaremba began
finding regular work with increasing regularity. That same year he got his
first recurring TV role as Special Agent Jerry Dressler on the anti-communist
espionage series
I Led 3 Lives,
playing the role 69 times over the next three years. During the same period he
also appeared on
Waterfront,
Big Town, and
Dragnet but found even more work in feature films, most notably
Chicago Syndicate,
The Houston Story, and
Earth vs.
the Flying Saucers. In the latter 1950s Zaremba was an in-demand character
actor on dozens of TV shows and feature films, usually playing authority
figures such as military men, policemen, judges or attorneys, sheriffs, and
scientists on
The Ford Television Theatre,
Science Fiction Theatre,
Code 3,
Navy Log,
The Court of Last
Resort,
Zane Grey Theatre,
Frontier Doctor,
Whirlybirds, and
Tightrope.
His feature films included
20 Million
Miles to Earth,
Young and Wild,
and
Frankenstein's Daughter. By the
early 1960s most of his work came in television on series such as
Maverick,
M Squad,
Men Into Space,
Hawaiian Eye,
The Roaring '20s,
Dennis the Menace,
Sea Hunt,
Checkmate,
Death Valley Days,
87th
Precinct,
Tales of Wells Fargo,
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and many
more. He took over the role of hard-nosed hospital administrator Dr. Harold
Jensen in the second episode of
Ben Casey
(
Maurice Manson had played the role in the pilot), and appeared 15 times over
the first four seasons.
Because he was only an occasional supporting player on
Ben Casey, Zaremba had plenty of time
and opportunity to appear on other programs between his
Casey years 1961-65, including
Sam
Benedict,
The Eleventh Hour,
Dr. Kildare,
Hazel,
Perry Mason,
McHale's Navy, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and
12 O'Clock High to name but
a few. And unlike some of his fellow castmates, he found plenty of work after
Ben Casey was canceled, landing a
recurring role as scientist Dr. Raymond Swain on
The Time Tunnel in 1966-67. He appeared 5 times in various roles on
The Virginian, played a few different
judges on
Judd for the Defense, and a
few more veterinarians on
Lassie all
in the latter 1960s. Transitioning into the 1970s he had multiple appearances
on
Ironside,
The F.B.I. and
Bonanza
before landing a recurring role as Judge Blaustein on
Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law with 9 appearances from 1971-74.
Though the number of guest spots began to wane in the mid 1970s, he still
appeared on multiple episodes of
The
Manhunter,
Cannon,
The Rookies, and
The Streets of San Francisco. He had a few semi-recurring roles in
the late 1970s--Senator Zukovsky in the 1976-77 series
Rich Man, Poor Man -- Book II, Dr. Harlen Danvers
on
Dallas,
and Judge Adams on
Little House on the
Prairie. Off-screen, Zaremba maintained a busy schedule as an instructor at
Pasadena Playhouse, helping found the Canyon Theatre Guild, as a member of the
Screen Actors Guild, and as a chairman for charters of the Red Cross and
Feeding America. In the 1970s and 1980s he played a fictional coffee bean buyer
in commercials for Hills Brothers Coffee. While still actively working on
Dallas, he suffered a heart attack and
died December 15, 1986 at the age of 78.
Notable Guest Stars
Season 1, Episode 1, "To the Pure":
Aki Aleong (shown on the left, appeared in
Never So Few,
Operation Bikini,
Buckskin,
The Quest, and
House of Sand
and Fog and played Dr. Sam Yee on
As
the World Turns, Mr. Chiang on
V,
and Mr. Wu on
General Hospital) plays
resident Dr. George Nabura.
Francis De Sales (Lt. Bill Weigand on
Mr. & Mrs. North, Ralph Dobson on
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,
Sheriff Maddox on
Two Faces West, and
Rusty Lincoln on
Days of Our Lives) plays
rabies expert Dr. Donnelly.
Stuart Nisbet (Bart the bartender on
The Virginian) plays his associate Dr.
Taylor .
Adrienne Hayes (Brooke Bentley on
General
Hospital) plays rabies victim Dorothy Wilmer.
Ann Morrison (appeared in
My Pal Gus,
Battle Circus, and
The
Brothers Karamazov and played Dr. Alma on
The Young Marrieds) plays her mother.
Angela Clarke (appeared in
The Great Caruso,
The Harlem Globetrotters,
House
of Wax, and
The Interns) plays sick
boy's mother Mrs. Salazar.
Maurice Manson (Frederick Timberlake on
Dennis the Menace, Josh Egan on
Hazel, and Hank Pinkham on
General Hospital) plays hospital
administrator Dr. Harold Jensen.
Barton Heyman (appeared in
Valdez Is Coming,
Bang the Drum Slowly,
The
Exorcist, and
The Happy Hooker)
plays fumbling resident Dr. Paul Cain.
Season 1, Episode 2, "But Linda Only Smiled":
Jeanne
Cooper (shown on the right, played Grace Douglas on
Bracken's World
and Katherine Chancellor Murphy on
The
Young and the Restless) plays Hodgkins Disease patient Linda Miller.
Susan
Gordon (appeared in
Attack of the Puppet
People,
Tormented,
The Five Pennies, and
Picture Mommy Dead) plays car accident
victim Kathy Reed.
Stanja Lowe (Mrs. Thomas on
Peyton Place) plays her mother.
Bernard Kates (Lalley on
The Asphalt Jungle, Ben Scott on
Guiding Light, and Arthur Saxton on
Where the Heart Is) plays consulting
physician Dr. Murphy.
Robert B. Williams (see the biography section for the
1962 post on
Hazel) plays Mrs. Reed's
attorney Mr. Hodges.
Charles Irving (Blanchard on
Perry Mason) plays the hospital's attorney Mr. Sanger.
Barton
Heyman (see "To the Pure" above) returns as Dr. Cain.
Mary Gregory
(appeared in
Sleeper and
Coming Home and played Dr. Stanwhich on
Knots Landing and Judge Pendleton on
L.A. Law) plays a nurse.
Season 1, Episode 3, "The Insolent Heart":
Luther
Adler (shown on the left, appeared in
House of Strangers,
M (1951),
D.O.A., and
Absence of Malice)
plays Casey's former teacher Dr. Michael Waldman.
Carl Benton Reid (starred in
The Little Foxes,
In a Lonely Place,
Lorna
Doone, and
The Left Hand of God
and played The Man on
Burke's Law)
plays dean of medical staff Alfred Norris.
David Lewis (Senator Ames on
The Farmer's Daughter, Warden Crichton
on
Batman, and Edward L. Quartermaine
on
General Hospital) plays medical
staff member Dr. Paul Wolf.
George Dunn (Jessie Williams on
Cimarron City and the Sheriff on
Camp Runamuck) plays heart patient's
husband Jim Wilkins.
Mary Gregory (see "But Linda Only Smiled" above)
plays a nurse.
Season 1, Episode 4, "I Remember a Lemon Tree":
George
C. Scott (shown on the right, Oscar winner, starred in
Anatomy
of a Murder,
The Hustler,
Dr. Strangelove, and
Patton and played Neil Brock on
East Side/West Side, President Samuel
Arthur Tresch on
Mr. President, and
Joe Trapchek on
Traps) plays brilliant
young neurosurgeon Dr. Karl Anders.
Colleen Dewhurst (multiple Emmy winner and
wife of George C. Scott, starred in
A
Fine Madness,
The Cowboys,
Annie Hall,
Ice Castles, and
The Dead
Zone and played Avery Brown, Sr. on
Murphy
Brown) plays his wife Phyllis.
Season 1, Episode 5, "An Expensive Glass of Water":
Chester Morris (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on
Diagnosis: Unknown) plays business owner
Walter Tyson.
Shirley Ballard (Miss California 1944, wife of actor Jason Evers,
script supervisor on
Mad Max, and
continuity supervisor on
Water Under the
Bridge and
The Sullivans) plays
his wife Wiletta.
Neva Patterson (appeared in
Desk Set,
Too Much, Too Soon,
Dear Heart,
The Buddy Holly Story, and
All
of Me and played Maggie McLeod on
The
Governor & J.J., Ma Ketcham on
Nichols,
and Margaret Brimble on
Doc Elliot)
plays his secretary Frederica Warren.
George N. Neise (Capitan Felipe
Arrellanos on
Zorro, Dr. Nat Wyndham
on
Wichita Town, and Colonel Thornton
on
McKeever & the Colonel) plays one
of Morris' executives George Baxter.
Herb Armstrong (Carl Sawyer on
Days of Our Lives) plays proxy vote
wrangler Joe Weiss.
Mary Patton (Mrs. Nowlin on
Days of Our Lives) plays a nurse.
Barbara Collentine (Charlotte on
Nichols) plays an injured construction
worker's wife Mrs. Johnson.
Season 1, Episode 6, "The Sound of Laughter":
Stanley
Adams (shown on the right, played Lt. Morse on
Not for Hire and
Gurrah on
The Lawless Years) plays nightclub
comic Tony Romano.
Ruth Storey (see the biography section for the 1961 post on
87th Precinct) plays his wife Leona.
Ned
Glass (appeared in
West Side Story,
Experiment in Terror,
Charade, and
The Fortune Cookie and played MSgt. Andy Pendleton on
The Phil Silvers Show, Jerry Dale on
Fair Exchange, later played Dr. Abraham
Goldman on
Ben Casey, Mr. Hastings on
Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Sol
Cooper on
Julia, and Uncle Moe
Plotnick on
Bridget Loves Bernie)
plays talent agent Hal Gaxton.
John Pickard (Capt. Shank Adams on
Boots and Saddles and Sgt. Maj. Murdock
on
Gunslinger) plays pathologist Jim.
Roxane Brooks (Sam on
Richard Diamond,
Private Detective) plays surgical nurse Dorothy.
Season 1, Episode 7, "A Few Brief Lines for Dave":
Kevin McCarthy (shown on the left, starred in
Death of a
Salesman,
Invasion of the Body
Snatchers (1956 & 1978),
The
Misfits, and
Hotel and played
Philip Hastings on
The Survivors, Claude
Weldon on
Flamingo Road, Zach
Cartwright on
Amanda's, George
Hayward on
Bay City Blues, and Lucas
Carter on
The Colbys) plays returning
resident Dr. Dave Taylor.
Phyllis Love (appeared in
So Young, So Bad,
Friendly
Persuasion, and
The Young Doctors)
plays hypochondriac Elizabeth Collins.
Meg Wyllie (Mary Elizabeth Kissell on
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, Doris
Roach and Lila Morgan Tolliver Quartermaine on
General Hospital, and Aunt Lolly Stemple on
Mad About You) plays sick boy's neighbor Mrs. Storey.
Mary Gregory
(see "But Linda Only Smiled" above) plays nurse Miss Wilson.
Bill
Bixby (Charles Raymond on
The Joey Bishop
Show, Tim O'Hara on
My Favorite
Martian, Tom Corbett on
The Courtship
of Eddie's Father, Anthony Blake on
The
Magician, Dr. David Banner on
The
Incredible Hulk, and Matt Cassidy on
Goodnight,
Beantown) plays an intern at a party.
Season 1, Episode 8, "Pavanne for a Gentle Lady":
Bethel
Leslie (shown on the right, appeared in 15 episodes of
The
Richard Boone Show and played Dr. Maggie Powers on
The Doctors, Claudia Conner on
All
My Children, and Ethel Crawford on
One
Life to Live) plays pediatrician Dr. Jean Howard.
Anne Whitfield (Barbara
Harris on
Days of Our Lives) plays sick
baby's mother Sue Paulson.
Alex Cord (Jack Kiley on
W.E.B., Mike Holland on
Cassie
& Co., and Michael Coldsmith Briggs III on
Airwolf) plays her husband Frank.
Harry Holcombe (appeared in
The Fortune Cookie,
The Unsinkable Molly Brown,
Foxy
Brown,
Escape to Witch Mountain,
and
Empire of the Ants and played
Frank Gardner on
Search for Tomorrow,
Doc Benson on
My Mother the Car, Mr.
Kendricks on
Barefoot in the Park,
and Dr. J.P. Martin on
Bonanza) plays
head of Pediatrics Dr. Prentiss.
Anne
Seymour (appeared in
All the King's Men,
The Gift of Love,
The Subterraneans,
and
Fitzwilly and played Lucia
Garrett on
Empire and Beatrice Hewitt
on
General Hospital) plays tumor
patient's sister Nancy Farrell.
Season 1, Episode 9, "My Good Friend Krikor":
Abraham
Sofaer (shown on the left, starred in
Christopher Columbus,
Quo Vadis, and
Elephant Walk) plays Armenian butcher Krikor Dakopian.
Arlene
Martel (Tiger on
Hogan's Heroes and
Spock's Vulcan bride on
Star Trek)
plays his daughter Nina Vartan.
Henry Corden (Carlo on
The Count of Monte Cristo, and Babbitt on
The Monkees, voiced Fred Flintstone on numerous later Flintstone TV
movies and videos, Paw Rugg on
The
Hillbilly Bears and
The Banana Splits
Adventure Hour,
Bez on
Arabian Knights, Arnie Barkley on
The Barkleys, General Urko on
Return to the Planet of the Apes, Bump
on
C B Bears, Sheriff Muletrain on
Yogi's Space Race, Clem on
Heathcliff, Mr. Gronkle on
The Busy World of Richard Scarry, and did
voicework on
The Flintstones,
Jonny Quest, and
The Atom Ant Show) plays her husband Henry.
Roger De Koven (Dr. Jim
Spencer on
Days of Our Lives) plays Krikor's
brother Joe.
Robert Ellenstein (appeared in
3:10
to Yuma,
Too Much Too Soon, and
North by Northwest) plays Krikor's psych
ward caretaker Dr. Grayson.
Jack Hogan (see the biography section for the 1962
post on
Combat!) plays psych ward
patient Carl Pierce.
Simon Scott (John Riggs on
Markham, Gen. Bronson on
McHale's
Navy, Chief Barney Metcalf on
Mod
Squad, and Arnold Slocum on
Trapper
John, M.D.) plays the judge in Krikor's commitment case.
Paul Keast (Nathaniel
Carter on
Casey Jones) plays court-appointed
psychiatrist Dr. John Davidson.
Season 1, Episode 10, "The Sweet Kiss of Madness":
Arthur Hill (shown on the right, starred in
The Deep Blue Sea,
Harper,
The Andromeda Strain, and
A
Bridge Too Far and played Owen Marshall on
Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law and Charles Hardwick on
Glitter) plays returning resident Dr.
Alan Reynolds.
Patricia Barry (Kate Harris on
Harris Against the World, Lydia McGuire on
Dr. Kildare, Adelaide Horton Williams on
Days of Our Lives, Peg English on
All My Children, and Sally Gleason on
Guiding Light) plays his ambitious wife Ruth.
William Windom (appeared
in
To Kill a Mockingbird,
The Americanization of Emily, and
Escape From the Planet of the Apes and played
Congressman Glen Morley on
The Farmer's
Daughter, John Monroe on
My World and
Welcome to It, Larry Krandall on
Brothers
and Sisters, Frank Buckman on
Parenthood,
and Dr. Seth Hazlitt on
Murder, She Wrote)
plays psych ward head Dr. Owen.
Roger Mobley (Homer "Packy" Lambert
on
Fury) plays young boy with a skull
fracture George Maxwell.
John Lasell (Dr. Peter Guthrie on
Dark Shadows) plays his father Jack.
Joyce Van Patten (appeared in
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!,
Mame,
The Bad News Bears,
St.
Elmo's Fire, and
The Falcon and the
Snowman and played Janice Turner Hughes on
As the World Turns, Clara Kershaw on
Young Dr. Malone, Claudia Gramus on
The Good Guys, Iris Chapman on
The
Mary Tyler Moore Hour, Helen Marsh on
All
My Children, and Maureen Slattery on
Unhappily
Ever After) plays his mother Stella.
Mary Gregory (see "But Linda Only
Smiled" above) plays nurse Miss Carson.
Bob Hastings (see the biography
section for the 1962 post on
McHale's
Navy) plays a psych ward orderly.
Season 1, Episode 11, "A Certain Time, a Certain
Darkness":
Joan Hackett (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1961 post on
The Defenders) plays epileptic Ellen
Parker.
Donald Woods (John Brent on
Tammy
and Craig Kennedy on
Kennedy,
Criminologist) plays her father Frank Dixon.
Lynn Bari (starred in
Always Goodbye,
Sun Valley Serenade, and
The
Magnificent Dope and played Gwen Allen on
Boss Lady) plays her mother Ethel.
Ron Hagerthy (Clipper King on
Sky King) plays new intern Dr. Lawrence
Powers.
Dyan Cannon (starred in
Bob &
Carol & Ted & Alice,
Shamus,
Heaven Can Wait,
Revenge of the Pink Panther, and
Deathtrap and played Lisa Crowder on
Full Circle, Judge Jennifer Cone on
Ally McBeal, and Honey Bernstein-Flynn on
Three Sisters) plays nurse Donna Whitney.
Anna-Lisa (Nora Travers
on
Black Saddle) plays neural
specialist Dr. Amy Peterson.
Mary Gregory (see "But Linda Only
Smiled" above) returns as nurse Miss Carson.
Season 1, Episode 12, "Dark Night for Billy Harris":
Telly Savalas (shown on the right, starred in
Cape Fear,
The Birdman of Alcatraz,
The Dirty Dozen, and
Kelly's Heroes and played Mr. Carver on
Acapulco and Lt. Theo Kojak on
Kojak) plays policeman George Dempsey.
Cece
Whitney (wife of actor Bernie Kopell) plays his wife Flo.
Bruce Dern (see the
biography section for the 1962 post on
Stoney Burke) plays shooting victim Billy Harris.
Paul Bryar (Sheriff Harve Anders
on
The Long, Hot Summer) plays shooting-range
proprietor Al.
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